Core Concepts in Working with People from Refugee Backgrounds, 28 February 2025

This essential workshop is designed to put a conceptual and practical framework of understanding around working with people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds.

You will understand about the link between what refugees have been through, the impact of torture and other traumatic events, and the stressors of detention, resettlement and cultural transition.

Engaging with real life examples, you will learn how to work in a trauma informed and culturally safe way that promotes recovery and fosters feelings of trust, safety and control, while minimising the risk of retraumatisation.

You will be encouraged to think about how to apply the concepts to your own workplace, and will leave the workshop feeling more confident in utilising your skills and experience with people who have experienced war, torture, persecution and other types of human rights violations, recover from their experiences and rebuild their lives in Australia.

This workshop is designed to put a framework of understanding around working with people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds. It focuses on understanding the link between what refugees have been through, the impact of torture and other traumatic events, the stressors of detention, resettlement and cultural transition. It explores how to work in a trauma informed and culturally safe way that promotes recovery and fosters feelings of trust, safety and control, while minimising the risk of retraumatisation. Participants will be encouraged to think about how to apply the concepts to their own workplace, and will leave the workshop feeling more confident in utilising their skills and experience with people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds.

Content includes:

• Refugees and asylum seekers
• The global refugee situation
• The relationship between visa types in Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program, experiences, access to services and trauma recovery
• Impact of persecution, torture, refugee trauma and forced displacement
• Resettlement stressors and programs
• Issues and services for temporary visa holders and asylum seekers
• Refugee trauma recovery practice
• Cultural safety
• Engagement and using interpreters
• Trauma triggers
• Setting boundaries
• Vicarious trauma, burnout and self-care

Who should attend?
This workshop is essential for anyone working with, studying a profession for, or volunteering with people from refugee backgrounds and people seeking asylum.


Our Trainer - Rafik Tanious
Bicultural Practice Specialist/Counsellor/Trainer, STARTTS

Rafik Tanious has worked across the social ecologies of education, mental health and social services with children and young people for the past 30 years both locally and internationally. He has extensive field work experience working with children and adolescents with refugee backgrounds in case work, education and counselling. Rafik has a continuing interest in trauma recovery, anti-racism, and youth identity formation and has developed racial literacy, and racial resilience programs for young people with refugee experiences and produced anti-racism films on Cabramatta for the NSW Premiers department.

Rafik has also been employed as a consultant and trainer with universities in supporting the mental health of international students, developing orientation programs and inter-cultural learning frameworks and facilitating cross cultural parenting programs. He has worked as an adult educator at TAFE NSW in the community services and health faculties and holds post graduate qualifications in counselling, education and film production with an interest in promoting children and young people’s rights, recovery, and facilitating opportunities for young people and children to tell their own stories of survival and healing. Rafik currently works at STARTTS as a school liaison project officer, counsellor and trainer.

Workshop delivery

STARTTS workshops are delivered by trainers experienced in the trauma field. They are interactive and normally include small group discussions via breakout rooms, case studies, self-reflections, videos and other types of activities. This workshop is delivered via Zoom. The Zoom link will be included in the registration confirmation email and the reminder emails.

Certificates and handouts
A PDF of the slides will be emailed to you a day before the event. A certificate of completion will be emailed to you the day after the event.

CPD points – 6 CPD hours
This workshop adheres to the continuing professional development standards of most professional bodies. Please check the CPD policy of your professional body.

Note that there are 5 Early Bird Tickets available for purchase 2 months and earlier before the workshop date.

Terms and conditions
Payment of the registration fee is online by credit card and a receipt/confirmation will be automatically emailed to you. An administration fee of $30 applies to all cancellations made more than 14 days the day before the start of the event. Registration once paid cannot be cancelled 14 days or less the day before the start of the event, regardless of personal circumstances. Registration can be transferred to another delegate only if STARTTS is informed of the name change. Registration cannot be transferred to another workshop. The concession price is for full-time students, seniors and the unemployed. A photocopy or pdf of a valid concession card must be forwarded to the STARTTS training team upon registration. Registrations will not be confirmed until full payment is received. The deadlines for the early bird and standard prices cannot be extended. Sometimes STARTTS will need to change the trainer of a particular workshop. The STARTTS Training Team can be contacted at stts-training@health.nsw.gov.au or (02) 9646 6700.